Despite the tremendous battles and fierce racing, there were no caution periods in the race. It was the fourth caution-free race at Mid-Ohio and the second time there have been back-to back caution-free races at Mid-Ohio.
There were also back-to-back caution-free Mid-Ohio races in 2012 and 2013.
There were 159 total passes and 110 passes for position, with seven lead changes among four drivers. Dixon led the most laps at 38, followed by Power with 26.
Dixon’s last set of tires were a scuffed set of Firestone teds which began to dramatically lose grip. His once huge lead evaporated, and he ended up in a fight to the finish with Rosenqvist.
“With about 15 to go, I started moaning to the team,” Dixon said. “I’m like, ‘Man, I think we’re going to have to pit again.’ A lot of it I think was just bad choices from my front. I think after the race, Chip said that he had decided that we should have gone to blacks. And I said, ‘Well, you own the team — how did we not go to blacks?”
“But I said, ‘it looks like the reds are holding on pretty well,’ but we made adjustments to the first set of sticker reds, had quite a bit of understeer. We made those changes for the used second set that already had four laps on it from qualifying, and they just couldn’t take it. It was too aggressive.
“Luckily I used them early to try and get past some of those lap traffic cars that did help us later on, I think at least delay Felix getting to us. But ultimately had we gone to the black tires, we would have maintained our eight- or ten-second gap, but it definitely made it exciting for me and I’m sure everybody else.
“Huge respect for Felix. He drove clean, and ultimately … it was going to be hard for any car to come past, even though we were about three seconds slower a lap than anyone else.”
Rosenqvist may have won the race if it had lasted for one more lap, but it was the highest career finish for the rookie driver from Sweden. Ryan Hunter-Reay took over third place when he banged wheels with NTT IndyCar Series points leader Josef Newgarden, who ended up off course at the “Keyhole” (turn two) and went from fourth down to 14th.
Alexander Rossi finished fifth and, combined that with Newgarden’s last-lap incident, cut the points lead to 14 with four races to go.
Simon Pagenaud finished sixth and remains third in points, 47 out, while Dixon’s victory brings him to within 62 points of the lead.
The NTT IndyCar Series takes the next two weekends off before resuming with the ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway on Aug. 18.